Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

“Steve’s Short-Sleeve Shirt”

Book Excerpt: Obama’s Children

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Earl S. Braggs is a UC Foundation and Battle Professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. His awards include the International Jack Kerouac Literary Prize and the Anhinga Poetry Prize. Obama’s Children is his 15th collection of poetry.

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“To the Aliens, Letter #4”

Book Excerpt: Star-Tent: A Triptych

Amie Whittemore was the 2020-2021 Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. She teaches at Middle Tennessee State University, where she directs MTSU Write.

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A Lifelong Task

Poet Alicia Ostriker talks to Chapter 16 about wrestling with literary and cultural tradition

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: An author of both groundbreaking criticism and acclaimed poetry, Alicia Ostriker has devoted much of her work to a feminist transformation of literary and cultural tradition. Whether arguing for recognition of women’s poetry as a genre in its own right or recasting the stories of the Bible from a feminist perspective, Ostriker is a radical with a deep respect for her roots. 

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“Daffodils”

Book Excerpt: What Bends Us Blue

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Former Knoxvillian Tom Lombardo is a poet, essayist, and freelance medical writer who lives in Midtown Atlanta. His poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, Ambit, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, and New York Quarterly, among others. He is the editor of an anthology, After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life Shattering Events, and is the poetry series editor for Press 53. His M.F.A. is from Queens University of Charlotte. 

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“A Warm Day in Winter”

Book Excerpt: The Foundling Wheel

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Blas Falconer is the author of The Foundling Wheel and A Question of Gravity and Light. His poems have been featured by Poets & Writers, The Poetry Foundation, and Poetry Society of America. 

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